June 19, 2009

Mostly thoughts for myself

I think it's been while since I just shared a thought without pictures. I was commenting on someones blog realizing that what I was saying was preachy so now I am going to preach for myself. 

I admire people that make decisions. I really dislike people that take forever to just pick what meal they want (Jack does this bad, but I actually love him, dislike waiting) I especially admire people that make them and then admit that's what they want to do. 

A friend of mine once talked to me about deciding something, and as long as you stick to it whether you are confident or not, that is the way to make a decision. Having faith in yourself and not justifying your actions for others is the way to go. 

It's said that when you dislike something about someone else, chances are that is something that you hate about yourself. I think that about this decision making thing. I can do better. 

I think in the last year, I have made the best decisions. I think what made them good is, I decided and I stuck by myself for them. Many times I was tempted to go back because I enjoyed my life. But that is when things don't change, and clearly I can see that my life is better. I don't ever think where I am now is where I thought I would be a year ago. I mean I didn't even want to talk to Jack, thought I was going to be with someone else. I figured I would stay in Provo, happy working in my favorite job at the middle school in Special Ed. Really, my life wasn't all that bad before. But I wasn't progressing. 

I think taking my leap of faith with something different made my life MUCH better! While I am somewhere different, at least I feel like I am learning to swim instead of still dog paddling. This is literal  because for the first time in years I swam under water without plugging my nose because I decided it was best to progress with my swimming. Really, standing around has gotten old. 

I did it because I jumped, I changed my direction, left my comfort zone, quit making excuses. 

Now to muster the bravery to keep it up, more jumping. Maybe tomorrow I will dive in the water. Thanks Lorena 

June 05, 2009

Here are some thoughts from the shower....

My best friend Mandy.

I'm sad we wern't in the same type pose, but switched spots, tender enough!
Once when I was living in Park Place our shower was unavailable, so Eric and Mandy were so nice to let me come over and bathe myself. I think this was the first time I noticed how neat and clean she is. There was just enough shampoo/cleaning supplies for what she needed and nothing extra. The sink had soap and Eric's favorite Gold Bond lotion  (I made a link for this because I want to make sure that everyone knows that it is indeed an awesome lotion for your skin.) I am and was so impressed with how she keeps her home. 


I thought of this today in the shower when I counted how many bottles of things I have and Jack has in there. 4 bottles for hair care, Shaving creme, body wash, loofah , razor, wash cloth and then 1 hair and 1 body bottle +loofah. I thought "Mandy's shower doesn't look like this."

The more I thought about Mandy and her cleanliness, the more I thought of all the extra things I have vs. her. The amount of clothes, makecup, hair stuff; I guess stuff in general. Then I thought of her simple personality as well. How she doesn't seem to complain, and she is very good about keeping her business to herself or just those that she feels she should know. 

Once I made a big mistake and gave her a skunk streak when highlighting her hair. She was very forgiving, especially since we really weren't best friends then. 

And now a list of things that I like about Mandy:

Her love for pink
Her simple, direct and effective parenting style
Her ability to look at a situation for the pros and cons
also to deduce the next best solution
Her efficientcy on the phone
Her talent in quickly solving problems
Her taste in music, clothes, baby clothes and kitchen untencils
How she likes gilmore girls and our discussions we have about the show
Her googling ability (saved me a few times)
Her williness to jump to help when needed
Midnight Harry Potter movies
Her smile
Her family (it's not her, but I do like them)
Her collection of flip flops
Her need to use a lot of pillows-in conjunction the way she sleeps (or slept, it's been a while) on them
The way she rolls her eyes
The way she celebrates "whoot-whoot"
The way she cooks
How she gives directions
Our matching movie popcorn shirts
How she was the only one (and eric) to give me real bystander advice when it came to a few decisions I've made in the past couple of years
How she still cared about me just as much when I gave her the immature "I know what I'm doing"
How she let me live with her for like a year
How she fed me durring that time too
Her name
I especially like how much I like being her friend

so this ode to Mandy, the bestest best friend I have had. Happy Birthday!









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